the European game-rabbit lives in Europe's largest part today, in South America, Australia, New Zealand as well as on some islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and in the Indian ocean.
Spread The rabbit owes the far largest part of this spread-area to the human being. Held beginning as popular abstinence-meal and hunt-object or stopped on lonesome islands as food-reserve for seafarers, it is a hated immigrant in many areas nowadays, that however frequently in vain one, tries again to get rid of. Also in Central Europe, the rabbit was abandoned only in the Middle ages. It admittedly was native until the last ice age here, was repressed on the Iberian peninsula and the western North-Africa by the ice then, however.
Already in the Roman-time, rabbits were held in captivity. Probably, it was descendants of these rabbits, whom one held in France in walled in enclosures, so-called Leporarien, at first. Fetuses or exactly born boy were regarded as allowed abstinence-food.
From the Leporarien, individual rabbits now and then escaped, others might be abandoned consciously, so that it already before the 11. Century in France free-living game-rabbits was supposed to have given. Beginning of the 12. Game-rabbits then were naturalized century in England. In the 16. and 17. To century, the first rabbits were exposed in Germany. As more frequent hunt-game, however, it becomes only in the 19. Century named.
Already with the first settlers, in the 18 came. Century at first 24 rabbits to Australia. they formed the reason-stick for the disastrous spread of the game-rabbits in this continent, that one could dam up only through the introduction of the Myxomatose (see below). In the year 1900, the Australian population had increased on roughly 20 million.
In the middle of the 19. Rabbits were imported century also in New Zealand. Rabbits were abandoned also on numerous other, smaller islands in order to give above all shipwreckeds a food-reserve. Today, game-rabbits even live on the Kerguelen-Inseln at the edge of the Antarctica.
Shape The rabbit is everyone familiar surely. Nevertheless many laymen have difficulties, it of its cousin, the hare (field-hare) to distinguish although there are clear differences.
Habitat The rabbit populates sandy and hilly areas where hedges or light grove offer coverage. In over 600 m, height lacks the rabbit. Against extreme environment-influences like rain, cold and wind, it is very sensitive.
Rarely, the rabbit lives in moist regions (different than the American cotton-tail-rabbit). However, the rabbit adapted itself to the "culture-steppe" created by the human being in particular manner. It settles gardens even amid big cities, in parks, and on graveyards. After the war, also the big debris-surfaces became settlement-area of the Wildkaninchens.
Way of life The game-rabbit lives sociably in contrast to the field-hare and positions myself-dug Erdbaue. The not padded holes are placed preferentially against sunny hillsides (also railroad-embankments or riversides) and are occasionally very much branched and quite extensive. Only rarely, rabbits give up the installation of Erdbauen and take other hiding places, wood-stack, hedges or natural cavities, as shelter at. Large game-rabbit-colonies can include several hundred animals.
Ever smaller groups of up to 10 animals probably live together in a closer community. An established ranking within the "bucks" and the "doe", as male and female game-rabbits are named, provides together for a regular one.
Whether the rabbits live in a monogamy or in a community-marriage, is not still completely clarified. It can probably claim the position-highest male all doe of its group for itself without resistance, however.
Rabbits have only small precincts and undertake only short hikes of clearly less than one kilometer. It is used certain ways, so-called changes, on that occasion again and again.
The precinct is marked with help of scent-glands and urine. Also the members of a group recognize by the "typical" smell. Rabbits have certain excrement-places, that they visit again and again, a peculiarity, of which one can also take advantage with freely in the apartment of held house-rabbits, in that one offers a receptacle filled with saw-chips as rabbit-toilet.
Reproduction In Central Europe, the main-reproductive-time is between Februaries and Julys. Interesting is that the ovulation with the female only after the combination, d. h. through these stimulated, takes place. The Tragzeit lies with 30 days. Shortly after the birth of the boys, the mother can already be covered again. A female can five - until seven-once in the year boy gets. Per throw was born 4 - 6 kids. In the yearly-average, however, each female tosses only little more than 10 kids. they usually become in one away from situated, brought to the world with hair and hay of padded Setzbau. The young game-rabbits are bare, blind and deaf in the birth, they weigh only 40 - 45 g.
The female covers the entrance again at the abandonment of the building site. It looks for the boys only one -, at most twice daily on, in order to suckle it.
The boys are looked after by the mother approximately one month long. they have a fur after 8 days and open with the 10. Meet the eyes. After half a year, the female animals become sexually mature, the males only after one three-fourths-year. As an exception, females from an early throw can still become pregnant in the same year.
Life expectancy Become 10 years old in captivity of held rabbits. The average life expectancy in the nature is however far under it. Most rabbits don't survive already the first year.
Enemies The game-rabbit has a row of natural enemies. Also in our region, where consequently the game-rabbit a late immigrant and actually a stranger in the fauna is, many animals got ready for the rabbits. Main-enemies at the ground are fox and polecat; out of the air, hawk and eagles, in the night also the big owls, put, as eagle-owl and forest-codger, the rabbit after. Above all young rabbits also become beside it from the ermine and even the small mouse-weasel, the buzzard, that kites and consecrations as well as from crows and dogs pursues. Occasionally, also the badger digs out quite young animals from the throw-nests.
However, the worst enemy is, as also for most other animals, the human being. Today, the rabbit is a frequent one in Central Europe, tolerated and integrated component of our fauna. Game-rabbits, like approximately in Australia, also never have caused bigger damages in Europe. The rabbit becomes all-year with us and frequently bejagt.
Food The rabbit is a herbivore as is known albeit it assumes also different meat-food in the captivity. Maybe it eats as proved from the field-hare, even mice. Is eaten in the spare dissimilar herb and grass, clover and grains. However it is not spurned also heather and Segge. The rabbit can become damaging if it gnaws off bark from foliage and conifers around in the winter and brings so even big trees to perishing.
Myxomatose The rabbits have to suffer from a whole series of parasites and illnesses.
A virus-infection became in the thirties of the 20. Century artificially on rabbits transfers: the Myxomatose. There was this illness figurative from mosquitos and fleas originally only with the cotton-tail-rabbit and doesn't proceed especially tragic with this.
In Australia, little satisfactory attempts were made with the virus 1936 at first. Only in the years 1950-1952, some large-scale actions brought the desired success: 90-95 percent of the rabbit-continuance was destroyed.
in 1952, the epidemic got through an inattentiveness to Europe. in 1953, also Germany and England were grasped. Everywhere, the stock of rabbits declined. Also countless house-rabbits were grasped by the epidemic. One could sicken numerous animals with swollen eyelids, nostrils and ears sees. Everywhere, inflammations and swellings occur at the body. The animals see and hear nothing more after some time and invariably then die. Meanwhile, however, a certain resistance occurred with the surviving rabbits.
House-rabbits The first in Central Europe of held and freed rabbits were already "house-rabbits", who however still had the look of normal game-rabbits, - or through neglect had regained.
From these "enclosure-rabbits", one began already in the 16. Century, to breed different forms. At first, only by colors were distinguished: There was whitens, black and gescheckte forms, later such with different hair-structure (Angora-rabbits) or races of different size or shape (ream and Aries). A very small race is the white ermine-rabbit, very big meat-rabbits are Z. B. the Belgian giant or the German giant-check.
A pure rabbit, and in no way a crossing between hare and rabbits (this is not possible), is the actually quite hare-similar hare-rabbit. Races with an uncommon fur-color are the colorful Japanese-rabbit, the blue Viennese as well as the black-drawn Russian-rabbits.
Since some years, a row of different "dwarf-rabbits" is offered in the zoo-trade. they are not to be confused with the not nearer used American dwarf-rabbits, an independent type of the hare-family.
This also wrongly sometimes as "dwarf-hares" of marked color-hits is a new race of the house-rabbits. It is crossing-products of the small Hermelinkaninchens with differently-colored big-races, that an independent race-group, the "color-dwarf", forms today.
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